I thought it was a Monty Python sketch. You know, the one about the cheese shop. Where the guy walks in to buy some cheese, but the owner, though buoyant, cheerful, upbeat, and proud, has to confess that they have no cheese. My son had visited the local travel agent to enquire about a visit to the UK, only to be told that they don’t have any travel information about the UK. Wow. A travel agent without travel information. (Perhaps we secretly became a republic, and I didn’t know it.)

But those stories are easily topped by one that is told in the Book. Jesus once walked into the Temple, expecting to find true worship and godly reverence and heart-felt gratitude and all the things that one might expect, only to find people busy at business and trading in greed and building their bank accounts. And being consumed by a holy wrath, He made a whip of cords and called them out and drove them out.

It makes me tremble every time I turn up to church on a Sunday. If Jesus walked in, what would He find? A tragic comedy? A sorry contradiction? A pitiful repeat of what He once found in the Temple? A church without love? A body without warmth? A heart without worship? A bride more interested in her fingernails than in her Bridegroom’s presence? O Lord our God, have mercy upon us, and let our cheese shop be always filled with cheese.